NERVOUS FOSSILS: SYNDROMES OF THE SYNTHETIC NETHER
Text by Mochu, images by Adityan Melekalam and Mochu; 3D modeling by Anmol Singh Jaswal Co-Published by Reliable Copy and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, 2022
Building on fact and theory, Mochu’s work of speculative fiction Nervous Fossils: Syndromes of the Synthetic Nether explores the possibility of an eternal consciousness—thought unbound by materiality or the existence of human beings. It’s a space-time-bending ride that unfolds across 88 pages of text and illustrations, and a rewarding one at that.
The book opens with an essayistic discussion of Stendhal Syndrome, a psychosomatic condition with symptoms including fainting and disorientation, induced by an aesthetic experience. From there, Mochu plunges readers into the waters of the East African archipelagic country of Comoros and an anecdote about a diver surrounded by lampreys with skin of such pure black “it felt like a concept.” One imagines that immersion in
